In the midst of an increasing number of attacks by Islamic extremists in Iraq since August, the situation of Christians is now alarming. Due to the Muslim dominated social settings and an absence of leadership within the Christian minority, Christians are finding it hard to speak for their rights, many of them choose to flee to the neighbouring countries under the crisis.
According to Pascale Warda, the Iraqi Minister of Migration, approximately 40,000 Assyrian Christians streamed out of the country following the first bombing and this figure could be as high as 90,000 according to some estimates.
Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad said the recent church bombings were clearly designed to frighten Christians. Previously, Yunadam Kanna, a Christian representative in Iraq’s interim parliament also said that the goal of the attackers is to sow strife in the heart of Iraqi society.
Director of the Assyrian Christian Assistance Centre in Baghdad, the Rev. Ken Joseph Jr. eventually stood out and spoke for Christians through Assist News Service: “We demand immediate action on this and call upon all freedom loving peoples worldwide to demand their governments immediately provide all assistance so these urgent needs can be implemented before it is too late and the indigenous people of Iraq the Assyrian Christians are forced to leave.”
Instead of standing in silence, Assyrian Christian leaders have been trying hard to connect with prominent worldwide leaders for assistance recently. A proposal called “Five R’s” have been introduced by them for the Assyrian Christian Community in Iraq in a series of meeting with the State Department in Washington and Congressional leaders and two separate meetings with the Iraqi Government, World Bank and UN.
The Five R’s are as follows:
- Reconstruction of 292 destroyed Assyrian Christian Villages
- Resettlement of nearly 100,000 Assyrian Christians driven out of their land by Saddam Hussein
- Registration for voting purposes of the community
- A Regional Security system
- A Regional Administrative Region under article 53 of the Constitution
Even politicians in Iraq have shown their concern. At the Iraqi Donors Conference in Tokyo, Japan, Dr. Aiham Alsmmarae, Minister of Electricity echoed other Iraqi Government officials from the Prime Minister and said, “The Assyrian Christians are the original people of Iraq…they have every right to have a protected homeland and we will do all we can to help them.”
Nevertheless, the faith of Assyrian Christians has been fully revealed through all these persecutions. They have continued to live according to the Gospel in the face of the dangers from attackers. Chaldean Patriarch commented, “These are inhuman acts. In the name of Iraqi Christians I ask everyone to pray that God may enlighten the minds of the people who are carrying them out.”